25 March 2007

some media coverage and the re-emergence of something long-ago forgotten

And now...the update:

Yours truly was profiled this past week on Adam Ross' film blog DVD Panache as part of the Friday Screen Test series. Adam was kind enough to throw in a d press mention. You can read it at the following link.

Some of you have asked how you can promote gravida on blogs, websites, MySpace, whatever. The following code will put the most current gravida promotional image on, say, your blog sidebar and direct people to the dedicated gravida page. Feel free to tweak the size as you see fit, just remember to keep the ratio of height to width the same, or it looks weird. As the image we use changes, so will the image on your end. Pretty damn cool. (also, change all the brackets "[]" to html code "<>")

Or, if you prefer, grab an image of your choosing from the brand-new gravidamedia page. If you want a similar image for the fundraiser, let us know and we'll hook you up.

There's a pretty big and pretty exciting announcement coming soon. Perhaps as early as next week. Some of you have an idea of what that is, but in the interest of getting all the details hammered out, I'll hold off on that until it's all sorted out. But be on your toes anyway.

I should mention that we really have zero expertise in the area of business and marketing and such. We're artists who realize the business end is important, but are figuring it out as we go. So, if some of what we do is strange or off-putting, stay with us. We're just trying stuff that we think has potential.

On the fundraiser front, there's been a small change, a tweak, if you will, to the gifts we're giving out. As you may remember, at the $25 level the gift was previously a compilation DVD of guard duty, L'Attente, and gravida, which is a pretty good gift, but we've decided to sweeten the deal with this addition...

For the first time ever, we're going to "open the vaults" (as they say at Disney) and add the poetic and perplexing window shopping (2003) and the rarely seen Joanna Lowe film 4 minutes, which is easily the most obscure film we have on file, to the Special Edition DVD. I'd be surprised if more than ten people have ever seen 4 minutes, to give you an idea of just how obscure it is. Just to reiterate, while you will be able to purchase some variation of a gravida and L'Attente compilation DVD, this Special Edition DVD is unique to the gravida fundraiser. I wouldn't count on these two films being made available for purchase in the near future, if ever.

There's also been some question about the top level of the fundraiser, the one where for a $250 donation we make a zany film for you. If a group were to gather up $250 amongst themselves and donate it, that would work just as well as a single donation from one person. We aren't picky. And to answer another question that's come in, there are some topics we wouldn't be able to do, as they would run contrary to what we stand for. A film about how wonderful genocide can be, for example, ain't gonna happen.

And finally, speaking of the fundraiser, Joanna Stocker, one of our leading patrons, had this to say about her role at d press and the fact that her donation still accounts for over half the total raised [edited for clarity and relayed here at her request]: "...tell [people] that I live with my parents still because I can't afford to live on my own, yet I faithfully tithe from every paycheck and I do my best to try to assist my dear friend Lucas in his pursuit of art in film making. These stingy bastards surely spend more then $50 a year in movie rentals and ticket purchases - so why not donate to someone who is actually working at creating the very media/literary/performing art they so readily throw their not-so-hard earned money into?"

"So i'm a assistant visionary. at least I know my place ;)"

The gauntlet, as they say, has been laid down.

It sounds like hyperbole, but a truly independent film collective like ours cannot exist without the support of people like Joanna. Long-term, it just isn't possible. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is just one more reason why Joanna Stocker is so very awesome.